Forecasting Euro-area macroeconomic variables using a factor model approach for backdating

Abstract

"We suggest to use a factor model based backdating procedure to construct historical Euro-area macroeconomic time series data for the pre-Euro period. We argue that this is a useful alternative to standard contemporaneous aggregation methods. The paper investigates for a number of Euro-area variables whether forecasts based on the factorbackdated data are more precise than those obtained with standard area-wide data. A recursive pseudo-out-of-sample forecasting experiment using quarterly data and a forecasting period 2000Q1-2007Q4 is conducted. Our results suggests that some key variables (e.g. real GDP and in ation) can indeed be forecasted more precisely with the factor-backdated data." (author's abstract